1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to an adaptor for use in connecting medical devices and, in particular, to a universal adaptor configured to connect traditional medical devices to monitors or other medical instruments equipped with standardized fittings.
2. Description of Related Art
Healthcare facilities such as hospitals, emergency rooms, trauma centers, physician's offices, and the like commonly employ a wide array of different medical devices for patient care. Such known medical devices include, for example, sphygmomanometers or other instruments for measuring blood pressure, stethoscopes or other acoustic medical instruments for listening to internal bodily sounds, and heart monitors or electrocardiographic devices used to analyze the activities of the heart. Due to the wide variety of medical devices used in modern healthcare, it is desirable for healthcare facilities to standardize the connectability of such devices, to the extent possible.
For example, patients visiting such healthcare facilities may receive treatment in one or more different locations within the healthcare facility during a single visit. During such a visit, a first medical device, such as an inflatable blood pressure cuff, may be affixed to a patient at a first examining location. A physician at the first location may then measure the patient's blood pressure by connecting the blood pressure cuff to a blood pressure monitor located at the first treatment location, and this monitor may be equipped with a standardized fitting configured to mate with a corresponding standardized port of the blood pressure cuff. It is common for the patient to then be transferred to a second treatment location within the healthcare facility for further evaluation or care. To reduce set-up time at this second location, it may be convenient for the physician at the first location to leave, for example, the blood pressure cuff, and/or other medical devices connected to the patient for use at the second location. It follows that equipping the monitors and other instruments used at the second treatment location with the standardized fittings used at the first location would enable healthcare professionals to quickly and conveniently connect the blood pressure cuff and other like diagnostic equipment to the instruments at the second location upon the patient's arrival.
The standardization of connection fittings within healthcare facilities is already underway at some facilities, and standardized monitor or instrument fittings for use in connecting multiple different medical devices are known in the art. An example of such a standardized fitting is shown in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. D575,871S, assigned to Welch Allyn, Inc. of Skaneateles Falls, N.Y. Equipping, for example, blood pressure monitors, and/or other common medical devices with such a standardized fitting, and equipping blood pressure cuffs or other like diagnostic equipment with a corresponding connection port may streamline the process of examining and treating patients at multiple locations throughout the healthcare facility.
However, once a healthcare facility has standardized the fittings employed by each of the monitors, sensors, instruments, and/or other medical devices used in each of its treatment locations, the healthcare facility may still have a need for a universal component enabling healthcare professionals to quickly connect such standardized fittings to blood pressure cuffs and/or other diagnostic equipment having ports or other connections that do not mate with the standardized fittings being used. For example, if a patient is fitted with a blood pressure cuff or other diagnostic equipment employing a port that is not compatible with the standardized fittings used throughout the healthcare facility, the equipment would have to be removed from the patient, and the patient would have to be refitted with a compatible blood pressure cuff or other equipment before the patient could be evaluated and treated using the standardized blood pressure monitors and/or other medical devices. Refitting a patient in this way can be time consuming and may be uncomfortable for the patient depending upon the diagnostic equipment being employed. Moreover, such delay could possibly result in harm to the patient depending upon the patient's condition.
The embodiments of the present disclosure are aimed at overcoming one or more of the difficulties described above.